YP Address—Dave Mearns
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Everybody got one of these. I want to sing one of the hymns in here.
Just tell you where we're going. I'd like to take up.
This morning, the same portion that.
Josh Stewart took up.
It's the parable of the sower.
I don't want to do it in Matthew, though. I want to do it in Luke's Gospel. There's a difference between Matthew, Mark, Luke, Matthew.
The emphasis is on the sower. In Mark, the emphasis is on the work of sewing. But in Luke's Gospel, the emphasis is on the seed, and I want to focus on that as we go through that.
That parable, but I want to start off by.
Singing #7.
In this little book.
#7 the chorus says. I surrender all. I surrender all, all to thee, my blessed Savior.
I surrender all.
If we could sing that together.
All to Jesus.
Aww, Christine's eyes.
Are under.
All without against skinny high thou.
Surrender.
Lord, I give myself to me.
When I'm over glad I was in swallowing.
Is going to be sunrise and they'll never fall.
It's pretty easy to give lip service to that, doesn't it?
I was thinking of.
Of the portion that we opened with Michael opened up with us in Matthew 11 and this year on my way back up to Rideau Ferry from Florida.
My wife and I stopped at a a Cracker Barrel and a lot of the Cracker Barrels, when you go in the front door, there's a, there's a yoke right over the front door.
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This particular one was a was an interesting one though.
Usually you see a yoke and it's got two bends in it like this to be able to yoke 2 oxen together. This one had a a yolk with a great big bend and then a little small bend.
And I really enjoyed that.
Looking at the thought of taking up.
The yoke here, take my yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. You shall find rest unto your souls. So if you could turn to me.
With me.
The 8th chapter.
Of Luke's Gospel.
Luke's Gospel, Chapter 8.
At at the outset, I would like to maybe ask this question that we could all answer for ourselves, and some of us don't know the answer. Some of us have a number of answers. What is it that makes us go? What is it that makes you go as a believer?
And I, as I as I look at this, this parable of the sower, Josh took it up with regards to the children and he took it up with regards to the gospel. I don't want to do it that way. I want to take it up with regards to those of us who belong to the Lord Jesus and in these different.
These different soils that we're going to look at.
I want to look at four different states of Seoul.
I'm just going to tell you a story. When I was when I was a child, we used to love to on Saturday mornings, my dad was at home, so we used to love to head over to his bedroom. My mom would get up and make breakfast and those kids would would pile into bed and we'd want to hear stories. He'd tell us various stories. We tried to push him to tell us some of his war stories.
He was very reluctant to to tell some of them. Some of them he told us. This one I only ever heard him tell it once and it was difficult for him.
He was. He was in the Navy. He was.
His portion was to work in the engine room on the battleship. It was the Nelson that he worked on and.
The the Nelson.
Was hit by a torpedo at one point and the way the the the battleships were constructed up to that point, it's different after that. This was one of the one of the older models.
They had a of course they had a generator keep getting things going if the if the engine was hit. In this case, the engine was hit as well as the generator and which meant everything went out.
Which meant that when the water was coming in, there was no way to get out of it, get the water out. Well where it was hit was the engine room. And in order to keep the the water from getting into the rest of the ship, they locked down the Hatch which was the access to the engine room. Which meant the men that were down there was where the water was coming in.
And the Hatch was sealed so that the water wouldn't get out. So the water would, if it did, it would rise right up to the top, of course, drown the people in there and.
It wouldn't get to the rest of the ship. Well, they had bailers, but they also had mechanical bailers, and in this case the generator was hit, so they had to use the mechanical balers. So they divided up into groups. One was going to repair the hole that was.
Was blasted in the sight of the ship and the others were bailing. And so there was pumps and they pumped mechanically by hand. Well, with the Hatch closed, the water's coming in. It's coming in. It's coming in fast. The water's coming up. The level of it is coming up fast. They're bailing and they're really bailing with real purpose. And one after another they were, they were taking shifts. There was two of them could go at a time and they were just working their hearts out to get this water out.
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At the same time as the other crew was trying to patch this hole. Well, my dad at the time.
He's in his early 20s, is a wife at home, is a little girl at home.
And he's bailing and he's bailing and he's bailing. And one after another they were bailing and baling and the water was rising. The water was rising, the water was rising when the water got to this level.
Was the time.
That the water coming in equaled the time the water going out.
And gradually as they as they worked.
So hard the water started to recede and, and they got it down to the bottom. But what a process. And I just thought of that. My dad told me that they told us that with tears in his eyes as he was bailing with a purpose for his wife and his little girl at home, as well as the rest of the men in that ship and.
He told me as a young, as a young person, he said Dave.
Whatever you do, make sure you're all in.
Whatever you do, make sure you're all in. And I was speaking to a brother in Brazil just before I came here who has been trying to ski down to hills at the same time. And when he was doing that, you can't be all in, everywhere. You have to be all in, in whatever you're doing. He's got one foot in the world where he's trying to satisfy himself and he's got a foot in the assembly where he's trying to live a life for the Lord. And.
Just doesn't work. And now as we go through this portion, I just want to exercise all our hearts to realize that if we're going to be able to to take up what our brother Michael brought before us just at the beginning of this day, there's a catch. There's a catch.
We have to be all in.
So let's look now at Luke's Gospel Chapter 8.
Luke's Gospel, Chapter 8.
And the fourth verse.
When much people were gathered together and were come to him. Now notice that expression. We looked at Mark's gospel.
Last night, 2 items that the Lord mentions when he called his disciples. One was that they would be with him, and the other that He would send them forth. Here we find they're coming to him. So it's the action of what we find in Mark's gospel and they come to him from every city.
And he spake by a parable. A sower went out to sow his seed.
So there is the focus now of what we have in Luke's Gospel, it's the seed. In Matthew, as I said, it's the sower. It's the it's the act of sewing that is brought before us there. And here it's the emphasis is on the seed. A sower went out to sow his seed and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside.
And it was trodden down in the fowls of the air devoured it.
And some fell upon a rock, and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. And some fell upon thorns, and the thorns sprung up with it and choked it. And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bear fruit, and hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be? And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries.
Of the Kingdom of God, but the others in parables that seeing they might not see and hearing they may not understand. Now the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. That statement is peculiar to Luke. Not going to find that in Matthew. Not going to find you to Mark. We're going to find it here. The seed is the word of God.
Now I don't have the visual aids that Josh had.
But you were all there, you saw them. So we had this first little container and he had this hard, hard packed dirt.
The wayside in the Word of God we find in a number of places.
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We were to go back to the book of Genesis when Judah was walking along, he saw Tamar by the wayside. We if we were to turn to the the story of Eli Eli, we find him sitting in a chair by the wayside when the news came that Israel had had been defeated and the ark of God was taken the the wayside. The wayside, as Josh put before it, it's the hard packed dirt.
It's a hard packed dirt. When the seeds go on it, they can't germinate, they can't sprout because it just can't penetrate. And I want to look at this now as we're going through these, these different.
Different types of dirt to realize that their states of soul that every one of us experience at one time another and there may be there may be some here.
And.
The Word of God just can't penetrate.
Maybe even you'd like it too, but there's a hardness there.
There's a hardness in your heart.
And how do you, how do you, how do you deal with that? How do I deal with that? Maybe generally when there's a hardness of heart, there's a reservation you don't want the word of God to, to penetrate. And I'd like to look at the book of Job for a moment, if you could turn over there to, because I believe that Job experienced this very thing in his own life in Job chapter 23.
I.
Job is is is responding to a life as here in in in this chapter and he says.
He he says in the 10th verse, Speaking of the Lord, there is some tenderness there that he he desires to have, but it's it just hasn't been unfold. And he says, you know what, the way that I take when I shall be tried, I shall come forth as gold. He knew that he says in the but he says in the 12Th verse, neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips. I've esteemed the words of his mouth.
More than my necessary food, I so appreciate the exercise here in Carrollton to make sure that there's a time.
For personal study of the word for personal.
Time just just with the Lord. However, however way it is, whether it's prayer, whether it's the word, or just seeking to be with the Lord.
I appreciate that so much because Job says here that that he had an appreciation for the for the for the words of the Lord more than is necessary food. And then he goes on to say he says in the 14th verse for a performance. The thing that is appointed for me and many.
Such things are with him. Therefore I am troubled at his presence.
When I consider I am afraid of him.
Yeah, I don't like that.
And yet I found myself at times when I'm not ready to receive what the Lord has for me. There's this reservation and there was a reservation that that that job had here. He says. I'm troubled at his presence. And I'm wondering if there's someone here perhaps finds himself in that scenario where you take up the word and it's and it's hard.
Because you're almost afraid of what you're going to find there.
But it's a wonderful thing to be able to to be able to, to find things that that work on us, that, that, that, that speak to us.
That encourage us. But if there's a hardness in our heart, it it just can't. It just can't penetrate. But what does Job know and what does he say and what does he impart to us? It's what comes next.
He says here in the 16th verse, For God maketh my heart soft.
God maketh my heart soft and I would just plead with anyone here that you have a hardness in your heart.
That you would just ask this of the Lord that He would make.
There to be softness in your heart to be able to receive what He has for you.
So that the good seed can, can, can penetrate down, it can germinate and it can sprout and there can be fruit. Oh, that was the desire of Job's of Job in his life. And as we turn back here to Luke chapter 8, we find this condition of soul, I believe that so many of us find ourselves in at various different times.
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So what does it say here?
Luke chapter 8.
And.
And verse 11 we read the seed is the word of God, then it says those by the wayside are they that hear and then cometh the devil.
And taketh away the word out of their heart.
Lest they should believe and be saved.
Now, as I said, Josh addressed the the the children and the thought that he brought was that they would be saved in their souls. That's not what I'm bringing out. My desire is that every one of us here would have a saved life. And if we were to look at Luke's gospel, we find twice that the devil is mentioned.
The first time that the devil is mentioned is in connection with the temptation of the Lord Jesus.
Where he he he tries to tempt the Lord Jesus and he is unsuccessful. And the other time is here.
Where the enemy tempts mankind, and he is successful, and so he says here then cometh the devil taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. You saw some of the.
Some of the pictures I had last night and in my own life I have seen so many people.
Make shipwreck of their lives.
You know, I did something on the way here that I don't generally do. I I stopped at the Ohio Welcome Center.
The only other welcome center I've ever stopped at is Florida because they give you a free glass of orange juice or a free glass of grapefruit juice and if you get back in line you get another one. Nothing like that in Ohio, just the whole.
A whole bookcase of little pamphlets. I pulled one of them out and I looked at it. The first thing I opened was I opened it up and it said all roads lead to home. I thought, wow, you know, in a certain sense, as believers, that's true. All roads are going to lead us home. But.
There's some pretty bumpy roads and young people, if you can preserve yourself from those bumpy roads, it would be a real blessing so that you wouldn't make shipwreck of your life and as it says here, that you should be able to believe and be saved.
This next verse here.
In the 13th verse.
It says then.
On the Rock.
Are they?
Which when they hear.
Receive the word with joy.
And these have no root, and for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away, or as Mark says.
Endure for a while.
I've looked at this and I thought of how so often in my own life I've heard I've received the word, and yet there's this. There's this time of temptation that we have slipped in here.
And what is that?
I so appreciated you're having some some time alone here. We all need time alone to spend in the word but.
If our alone times are not with the Lord.
They are far more to be feared.
Than our busy times far more because that's the time when the enemy focuses in focuses in on our minds we have that brought before us.
Let's turn over to Corinthians for a moment. I just want to look at a verse there.
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The apostle understanding this concept that I'm I'm trying to to to bring out here.
In.
And let me find it here. First Corinthians.
I can't put my finger on it. Somebody can help me here, Bring me into captivity?
Every thought.
To the obedience of Christ.
Thank you 2nd Corinthians 10.
10/5.
Casting down imaginations.
And every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. You know our thoughts. They do not want to be captive.
They do not want to be captive, and that's why we have this exhortation to do that.
Our thoughts want to go thousands of different ways, bringing into captivity every thought the obedience of Christ. You know, young people just that this at this juncture, I'm just going to say this, I'm going to I'm going to change gears here and turn to Timothy for a moment. If you could just turn to first Timothy for a moment, you'll see why I'm changing gears here.
There's a there's a word that.
The.
Apostle gives to Timothy.
In Second Timothy.
Chapter 4.
Second Timothy, chapter 4 and verse 21.
An old brother in California gave me this verse when he was visiting with me when I lived there, and he read this verse to me in verse verse 21.
He said, David, do thy diligence to come before winter.
Do thy diligence to come before winter.
And he paused. And let me, let me look at that verse. I looked at it and I thought, Well, what?
What, what's he trying to come up with? And he told me, he says, David, I'm in the winter time of my life. You're in the springtime of your life. You're at a time when you can assimilate things. You're at a time when you can remember things. He said, I'm in the winter time. Everything I had I got when I was younger and I can't assimilate anymore. And also I can't remember a verse like we just turned to.
Someone help me with the verse. I'm thankful for that. When you get a lot of birthdays.
There's breakdown, and I would just encourage you young people, be diligent in the Word before the winter comes. I'm in the winter time of my life. You're not. You're in the springtime. You're at a time when you can study, you can assimilate, you can hang on to it, you can remember it. That is the time of your life that you need to really be diligent in the Word. That's just by the way. So let's go back to Luke's gospel. Luke's gospel.
I'm going to grab a drink here.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 8. That 13th verse.
These have no root, which for a while believe and in time of temptation fall away. So last night we spoke a little bit about having a good start and being able to finish well. I'm looking at a room full of people that have had a good start.
So many people.
Do not finish well.
Yes, all roads lead to home.
But there are some disastrous roads that lead to home.
Disastrous ones.
They on the rock.
Are they which when they hear, receive the word with joy, and these have no root for a while, Believe in a time of temptation fall away?
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Let's go to the thorns.
The thorns.
Verse 14.
And that which fell among thorns are they, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked, and cares, and riches and pleasures.
In Matthew it's different. In Matthew it says the riches and pleasures of this world.
Here it's of this life.
And I have found in my own life on an ongoing basis.
That there are the necessary things of life. Every one of us has those necessary things of life. And it's a challenge to me to be able to keep those necessary things of life, to do them, and to recognize that the Lord gives us time. I'm always challenged by the Lord Jesus having in his life every day.
Just the right amount of time he had to do what God the Father wanted him to do.
The Lord Jesus never had too much time.
He never ran out of time.
So often I run at a time.
Because I add things in there, they're perhaps not supposed to be there, or I have too much time because I'm not occupied with what I brought before you last night. The thought of being sent I, I, I coast.
The Lord wants us to make good use of our time, and he says here that there are things that infringe on our time. They have heard, they go forth and they're choked. Even the necessary things of, of, of of this life, they can choke the word. I ask a question. Has anybody here ever not choked?
Anybody.
So you're going to understand the concept. Everyone of us has choked. It's fascinating to watch a little, a little child choke and to see the mother tear right after that little child and try get whatever is out of the out of the throat out so that the child can breathe again. We all know what it's like. We choke. Thank you. You just choked for me. That was a cough, not a choke.
When we choke, it's because something is stuck there and when we're choking.
We're not thinking about anything else. And that's the whole point of the enemy of our souls. If he can get us so occupied even with the necessary things of life that we just cannot think of anything else. That's that's the whole thought here. It chokes out the word. It chokes out the things that matter. And there is there is so often in my life when even when I sit down to to enjoy a portion.
The enemy brings thoughts in and pretty soon I'm thinking about what I have to do and what I what I what I haven't done that I should have done and and and the word is choked out.
It's really the work of the enemy, but it but it's very, very real. And then it goes on to say though, that the cares and the riches and the pleasures and a brother once came to me once and he said, you know, David.
If I in my life.
If I can't trust God.
To be able to do his will.
I'm going to have to trust myself to try to do my own will to make myself happy.
If I can't trust the Lord to give me a happy, fulfilling life by doing His will, then I'm going to have to revert to trying to make myself joyful and happy in this life by doing my own will. Now we heard Bob Toy bring before us. It's not about ourselves. And so, so true. That's just what we were seeing, weren't we? Here in this little hymn, I surrender all.
I surrender all all to thee, my blessed Savior.
I surrender all.
The cares, the riches, the pleasures of this life and what happens?
It says and bring.
No fruit.
To perfection.
No fruit to perfection.
Well, let's go on to the last one now.
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It says, but on the good ground, are they?
Which in an honest and a good heart, having heard the word.
Keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. Now that's that's that's a statement that's unique to Luke's gospel, the concept of patience, I think.
If my wife was here and she.
Heard me starting to talk about patients. She'd get this funny look on her face.
Typically I'm an impatient person.
Well, you have to wait for for fruit, don't you? But here it says there's good ground and there's a catch.
They have an honest, a good heart, and they've heard, but now there's this little word.
To keep it.
To keep it.
You know, I was reading this portion. I had a customer. This is a few years ago.
While I was still hammering some nails, I had a customer that called me up and he was the same age as I am.
And he said, you know, Dave, I had.
I had an aunt pass away.
And she had what you have.
She had peace and he said, I want your peace. I said, well, come on over. So he lives just around the corner from me. He he came over, sat in our living room. It was actually my wife was in Florida. We sat in the living room together and we chatted.
And.
After about half an hour, I said so, So how real is this? Well, it's real. It's real, I said, Is it real? Real enough to talk to God about it right now? Yeah, it is. It is. And he poured his heart out to the Lord there in my living room.
Very sweet to see man in his early 60s and it was lovely. I had a thereafter I had a Bible study with him for a for a period of time.
And I met him at AI, met him at a store.
Sometime later he's still in my life and he came to me. He says, you know, Dave, I, I just, I just having a hard time reading the Bible. I read all kinds of things and it's easy to read, but I'm just having a hard time reading the Bible.
And I, I, I tell you this because we need to be, we need to be conscious of the Lord's timing in our lives.
And I went home and I was actually in this portion and I was reading in this portion and I read, you know, in the first part of the portion it speaks of, it speaks of the, of the wayside. And then verse six, it says some fell on a rock. And it says as soon as it sprung up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. I thought, you know, he, he needs to hear this. He needs to hear that he needs the moisture of the word. So I get in my truck.
This would be a couple days later after I'm reading this and I I'm going to drive over to his place. So it's in the springtime. He's only about a three minute drive.
I pull off to the side of the road and I just asked the Lord to help him be able to be in a position where he can receive this and, and help me to be in a state of soul where I can deliver it. And, and I with fear and trembling, I, I'm going to read him this portion about how we need moisture. And so I, I drive, I drive up to his place and I'm just coming in the driveway and he's walking down the driveway with a sprinkler.
And he has, he has sewn a little patch of grass over in the corner. I'm not sure he was working on it. And the grass is up this high and he's going over with with the sprinkler and he does that. He goes right over to the.
The patch of grass puts the sprinkler down, comes around to my truck and says, you know, how are you? And I roll down the window and I just read in this portion.
In verse six, I said some fell upon the rock and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. I went back and I read the earlier verses and I said, you know that that grass, when it didn't have moisture, it just withered away.
He stood there and he looked at me. He looked over at the grass, at his sprinkler, looked back at me and said, you know, I get it. I get it. I just thought of the timing in my own life, you know, if I'd have waited 10 minutes or if I'd have done 15 minutes later, the timing would have been off. But the Lord arranges things in our own life that way. We, we sometimes worry. We see, we think the Lord needs more help. But no.
00:40:14
The Lord has has things timed for us, but we need to let him. And so here we find that there's, there's, there's good ground.
And it says here they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, they keep it, they keep it, You know, that that's such a, that's such a word to my heart and to my conscience to keep it so that there's fruit and young people.
My desire is that for everyone of you.
That there wasn't there would be this keeping it, you know, so much.
But as it found its way into your heart, and as it found its way down into your feet.
Have you, have you come to that point in your life where as we were seeing, you know, I'm going to sing this again, where you surrender all?
The Lord doesn't want half measures.
If the Lord is going to be Lord in our life.
He has to be Lord of all.
Or he's not Lord at all.
And he desires. He desires to be that, and he desires to.
To be able to have fellowship with us on a daily basis. That's his desire, the enemy. He wants us to have these other states of soul that we've had. But oh, that the Lord would, would, would work in each of our hearts that that which we know would find the 12 way down into our feet, that there would be fruit for his honor and glory. I wonder if we could just pick up now and and sing that little song that we sang at the beginning.
More #7 in this little book.
All to thee, my blessed Savior.
I surrender all. Somebody start with that for us, please.
All to Jesus.
All Japan, my great evening.
I will never bring the Lord and trust him in his prayers and gave me a good life. It's not bad and no matter how.
Surrender.
Lord, I get myself significantly.
My heart and heart like plastic fall on me.
00:45:15
When I was driving here, I got this text. We sat through two prayer meetings, didn't we? And we heard Will Will Hayhoe Junior speak about.
Little Elise that's having heart trouble and Jeremy and and Lydia, of course, are going through this trial with their little girl. Well, I'm, I'm driving along. I'm just just getting to Ohio and I get this text and it's from Esther. It's from Jeremy's mother.
Alisa is right, pulmonary arteries are failing her. They're at the sick Kids in Toronto. Her cardiac cast and open heart are cancelled because of her heart isn't strong enough to go through it. She's on meds which we are praying will help her so she can have life saving surgery. If the medication works, she might have the catheterization in a week.
The open heart would not be until after their baby comes. Please pray for them.
I read that text and I burst into tears and I'm not I'm not.
I'm not given to bursting into tears.
And yet my mind goes back 36 years in my own life.
To when I held two little baby girls.
And they didn't make it. The Lord took them home.
It was a time of great exercise in my own heart to look forward to these two little baby girls. Twins and became a little bit too early, lived for a short while.
And the Lord took them home.
And I look back and I recognize that there's times in my life when the Lord had to use strong measures to get my attention. He had my attention then. And I very much remembered it as I was driving along and trying to go through this trial that Jeremy and his dear wife are going through with this little child. And of course, expecting another one that's got similar.
Similar complications.
And, you know young people.
The Lord brings things into our life to get our attention, to get us to surrender. It's it's so much easier if we can surrender without hard and bitter experience. I've had lots of them. I've been the type of person that's needed a lot of stress in my life just to throw me back on the on, on the Lord. Why? Because naturally speaking, it's not my bent. It's my bent to do my own thing.
Young people, if you can just do what we've just been singing. Just surrender.
It's it's such a happy pathway, the pathway of submission to to lay your head on is just such a soft pillow. And dear young ones, I you're the beginning of your life. You know, I was just reading in job the other day. Man that is born to trouble.
A man is born to trouble as a sparks fly upward and it's it's true. There's I look at you at the beginning of your life.
Some of you have had some trials, some of them not.
They're going to come. They are going to come, but oh, just to be able to submit to the Lord, to whatever the Lord brings across your pathway.
And then adjust yourself and recognize the state of soul that you're in when He addresses it. We've seen these states of soul, and the Lord would have us to be able to have that good seed fall on the good ground that there would be fruit for His honor and glory.